The song-and-dance ‘stars’ who performed at the gala (CLICK TO ENLARGE) (Photos by Robert Stukes)

(CNS Local Life): The Protection of
Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) recently celebrated its eighth annual PAWS Under the
Stars fundraising dinner at Grand Old House. With almost 200 guests, this
year’s event marked one of the largest in the charity’s history, with the money
raised supporting its various animal-welfare programmes in aid of cats and dogs
in Cayman’s eastern districts.

“This is our biggest fundraiser for the
year,” PAWS Founder Giuseppe Gatta said in a press release. “This is what will
enable us to continue to fund our spay-and-neuter programme, our feral cat
shelters, and, most importantly, our financial assistance programme.”

He added that PAWS currently assists
approximately 30 families with more than 100 pets by providing monthly
medication and food supplies. “Preventative medication, like
Heartgard and NexGard, are essential to reducing costly visits to the vet in
the future,” he said. “It is one less bill for them to have to worry about.”

In keeping with the star-studded theme of the event, held 2 March, arriving guests were greeted by the students of Centre Point Dance Studio, stated the press release. Attendees perused the dozens of silent auction items up for bid, including colourful Talavera pottery, fine wines and spirits, and handmade jewellery.

Andrew Bacon and Kelly Rooney were the emcees for the evening with Rooney sporting a black dress specially purchased from the PAWS thrift shop.

The dance students opened the
entertainment with a number performed to “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, the hit
song from Funny Girl. Continuing the theme, crowd-favourite “Queen” Angela
Adams sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, “My Man” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”.

Emcees Kelly Rooney and Andrew Bacon (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Following dinner, Bacon started the live auction, highlighted by stays at three luxury properties in Franschhoek, South Africa; Paris, France; and Algarve, Portugal, donated by Duncan and Amy Spence, the owners of Rickety Bridge Wine Estate; and a dinner for eight with wine pairings prepared in-house by local celebrity chef Keith Griffin, donated by Ristorante Pappagallo and The Lighthouse Restaurant.

Next up was the “off-Broadway” show performed by Gatta, Natasha Clark, Andrew Kronick, Radames Tognazzo, Cristian Crescente, Edward Gayod, Mark Edmunds, Ron Hargrave and James Dutton, described as “a group of intrepid gentlemen who are always willing to put on a show for a good cause”. This year, the men, dressed in sequins, performed a song-and-dance number the movie Mamma Mia! with choreography help from Anita Gough, Sophie Gough and Natasha Clark of Centre Point.

The date for next year’s event has already
been set for Saturday, 20 March.

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